1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a surgical stapler for implanting mechanical surgical fasteners into the tissue of a patient, and, in particular, to a surgical stapler which is powered by a motor for firing surgical fasteners into tissue.
2. Background of Related Art
Current known devices can typically require 10-60 pounds of manual hand force to clamp tissue and deploy and form surgical fasteners in tissue which, over repeated use, can cause a surgeon's hand to become fatigued.
Gas powered pneumatic staplers which implant surgical fasteners into tissue are known in the art. Certain of these instruments utilize a pressurized gas supply which connects to a trigger mechanism by way of an intricate series of hoses and actuators. The trigger mechanism, when depressed, simply releases pressurized gas to implant a fastener into tissue.
Motor-powered surgical staplers are also known and are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,880 to Hooven and U.S. Pat. No. 6,716,233 to Whitman. The '880 and the '233 patents disclose powered surgical staplers including motors which activate staple firing mechanisms. In particular, the '880 patent discloses a powered stapler wherein the power of the motor is automatically controlled based on various types of sensor data (e.g., tissue thickness). The '233 patent teaches a powered stapler that is automatically controlled as a function of sensor data. However, both of these references only provide for limited user control of the stapling process. The '880 and '233 patents provide the user with the option of toggling a single switch and/or button to actuate the powered stapler which then automatically controls the motor and applies corresponding torque to the stapler's firing mechanisms. Consequently, in these references, the user only controls activation and deactivation of the device and the device does not provide any tactile feedback.
It would be desirable to provide a low cost motor powered stapler that provides the needed energy required to fire the instrument to form a series of surgical fasteners into and through tissue. It would also be desirable to provide an ergonomically advanced surgical stapler which reduces fatigue during repeated use and provides the surgeon with more tactile feedback during activation of the stapler. It would further be desirable to provide a powered stapler which provides the user with tactile feedback allowing to user to vary the force applied by the motor on the stapling and/or clamping mechanisms.